Tag Archives: common humanity

Francis: An Icon of True Humanity

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St Francis’ lasting legacy was to teach humanity the sacred lessons of unconditional and boundless love. He especially taught love through his humble service to the vulnerable peoples in his own time who were held in contempt by the powerful and comfortable. He demonstrated the indestructible power of love, which overcomes our primal egoic thoughts of fear and separation, when he conquered his revulsion and fear of leprosy, kissing and embracing a leper. He then dedicated his life to the service of this most vulnerable, outcast and reviled community of his age. His freedom to undertake this service of love so powerfully was inextricably linked to his detachment from worrying about what others thought about him. This was an incredible freedom.

Francis radical non attachment to material possessions of the world was an antidote against the manipulation and control agenda of the world expressed in the cultural norms of his society. He was an advanced being of divinity and light who came into the world to change the course of the world for centuries beyond his own age. He is especially relevant to the world of today which sits on a dangerous precipice. This is why Francis appeals to people’s of all spiritual traditions and none. His message is that of non-partisan love. He demonstrated to us all how the living Christ present in all living beings, can be activated and actualised in a single lifetime.

Francis exuded light. He was consciously united with Eternal Light and this light shone on all whom he encountered. This Divine Light dwells within each one of us, and which is our deepest true self (but which is dormant in most of us). He was a mystic, healer, teacher, Bodhisattva and a dear father to the despised and disposable of his society. Francis is an icon of our own journey towards illumination. He is a pointer to our spiritual awakening. When we heal from our internal fear, judgment, harshness and violent self-criticism and embrace simplicity of heart we strip away the ego and superego, and fear-based defences such as cynicism, pessimism, chauvinism and narcissism. When we become light we warm and illuminate the lives of others. Francis can be a dear companion to us on the journey, gently helping us to deconstruct the unreal to reveal the real. Allow him to draw close to you.

Your Worth Has Never Been Dependent Upon Your Productivity

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The world has told us from the day we were born that our value and worth are determined by our productivity; by what we do and achieve. At school we are taught that we must study hard; do well in our tests and exams; find a good job or do well in higher education. Our parents who were conditioned by the same lie will have inadvertently reinforced this message of self worth being dependent upon productivity. A smaller percentage of parents may have been so neglectful or actively harmful to their children – because they were the children of intergenerational neglect too – that the self esteem of their children feels beyond reach. For them the cultural message of worthiness being based upon productivity is etched into their psyche but they may lack the skills to pursue the untruth of “productivity”, and so feel even less worthy in the game of life. It’s no wonder therefore that for some people, feeling inadequate or having a sense of imposter syndrome is their core experience of being. For some, the pain of feeling inadequate may make them defensive or self sabotaging. For others life may feel like an experience of automatic pilot alongside quiet desperation. But for many, life is an endless process of just getting on with things – getting through each day and telling themselves that the weekend or the next Netflix show isn’t far away. This is the growing experience of western people especially now living in a world that is too expensive, too debt ridden to live “productively”, but still driven by the belief that self worth is based upon productivity.
 
One of the saddest things I have heard from so many people with advanced incurable illness is that they feel worthless because they are no longer “productive”. They have learned to determine their sense of self worth through what they do, rather than because of who they are. This is not surprising because our consumerist and individualistic culture places self worth upon our productivity, despite the obstacles that stand before us.
 
Today we are living through a time of scarcity where wages are stagnant and everything is expensive and increasingly becoming more expensive. Pay cheque to pay cheque is the experience of many. The dominant culture, nonetheless, continues to tell us that we should work harder and be just be more productive. It blames us when we can’t cope and tells us that we are inadequate for struggling.
 
The truth is that we are valuable just because we exist. We are valuable because we are beings of infinite dignity, purpose and worth. We are beings of the clear light of divinity. We are divine creations who are eternally loved and are made from the substance of love itself. We do not experience ourselves as such because of the conditioning of this broken world, however that is who we are. We are children of the Living Light. The question is, how can we make conscious contact with the essence of our being when we have been told for so long that who we are, depends upon what we achieve? Part of the path to freedom from this thought from of scarcity is realising that our conditioning is a lie. It really is a terrible lie.
 
There are powerful spiritual forces in this world guiding us into a greater level of evolutionary transcendence. But there are also archonic forces trying to destroy this next step into greater consciousness. Through this knowledge of our true identity, we can start the process of rejecting the pathogenic lie that we are inadequate. Do not forget each day to affirm that you are a sovereign being and that others are sovereign beings too. Remember each day to stop, breathe slowly and deeply, and affirm with authority that Love is your natural state of being leading you gently into the light of truth. See the light hiding behind the eyes of all whom you encounter, even if they don’t realise it themselves, and feel compassion for their suffering because of their ignorance of who they truly are.
We have to start somewhere with the movement out of fear and into love ❤️

Trauma and Compassion ~ Gabor Mate

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Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day

The internationally acclaimed medical doctor, Gabor Maté, is a bestselling author, teacher and public speaker whose pioneering compassionate work with people suffering from addictions and their causative underlying traumas, has been a very important voice in the development of global humanitarianism and compassion. Gabor was born in Hungary in 1944 of Jewish parents during the time of the domination of Nazism in Europe. Gabor says he was born into a traumatised world and a traumatised people, and as a result experienced early trauma himself.
 
He emigrated to Canada in 1956, worked as a teacher and then obtained a medical degree and became a physician. In his career, Gabor came to understand that there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in creating a stable, compassionate, healthier and sustainable world. These issues include supporting good nurturing parenting and secure and safe attachments for children in early life; creating better lifestyle and living conditions for people; lowering of stress and anxiety that creates nervous system activation and overwhelm, and teaching people to work with their emotional and psychological scars through a process of compassionate self-inquiry.
Gabor has made the bold assertion that trauma is endemic in human society, negatively impacting upon most of us, and perpetuated by a western materialistic agenda. He considers our current culture and society to be harmful to human good, of which he says:
 
…Illness in this society, physical or mental, they are not abnormalities. They are normal responses to an abnormal culture. This culture is abnormal when it comes to real human needs. And.. it is in the nature of the system to be abnormal, because if we had a society geared to meet human needs.. would we be destroying the Earth through climate change? Would we be putting extra burden on certain minority people? Would we be selling people a lot of goods that they don’t need, and, in fact, are harmful for them? Would there be mass industries based on manufacturing, designing and mass-marketing toxic food to people?…
 
As we look upon some of the massive problems facing humanity today, it is easy to lose hope, including the devastating loss of life in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar and many other countries; mass third world hunger and destitution; the growing inequality and poverty in western nations created by poor wages; the rising cost of food, energy and housing prices; the ecological crisis threatening our very future on the planet and already eroding our lands and oceans; the growing wealth of a minority at the expense of the majority; the duplicitous and dishonest politics we have seen paraded before us, and many, many more issues. Gabor Mate would point to the need for us to compassionately de-traumatise our world. He would suggest that we treat ourselves and others with compassion, and to firmly, but compassionately, hold accountable those in positions of power and privilege who exploit the world for selfish ends. With compassion we can heal. With compassion we can create narratives about ourselves and others – especially those whom we might judge as being “failures” “losers” “idiots”- and recognise our common humanity. We can appreciate that life is hard for us all and that we cannot know what it is like to walk in the shoes of another person.